Artist

Alexander Averin

Friday 27 June 2014

Collapse of Capitalism




Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism.

Karl Marx, 1867, Das Kapital



Collapse of Capitalism


As Marx foretold to us, the cake is shrinking,
the ship is sinking,  the rodents have come
to the fore, the fat cats feast upon our
shores, feuding and fighting amongst themselves.
The vulnerable seem to be subdued,
repressed, dismissed, their lifelines cast  aloft
into some briny deep along with truth
and trust, care and humankind’s compassion.
Only the slightest shreds of verity
remain, almost entirely covered now
by lies and spin as the cake reduces.
The poorest, the meek, the sick and the weak,
the greens and the peacemakers, once were blessed
but are now portrayed as fools or traitors,
burdens or charlatans, benefit scroungers.
The rodent-rich, much richer than before,
step upon the enslaved and the ignorant,
laughing at them as they do, with barely
hidden arrogance, while gnawing at their bones.


Cait O’Connor



8 comments:

Teresa Evangeline said...

Excellent, Cait. I so appreciate seeing poets who speak out.

Susan Anderson said...

Great use of language here. As usual, you have expressed yourself to near perfection.

Well done!

=)

donna baker said...

Very interesting Cait. I've been telling my husband for years that capitalism cannot continue; that it has failed, but what is the answer? I shudder as I remember Russia and China just a few years ago. Don't get me started on taxes and health care.

martine said...

I don't think Marx realised just how fucking determined the capitalists would be to cling on to what they've got.

Catherine said...

Cait things are so bad here! I can't get enough of art against capitalism.....rodents is such a powerful word.......yes I shudder too......

SUE said...

Very good, Cait! You tell it like it is...beautifully!

Anonymous said...

Great truths are sometimes the prerogative of poems. See you on the barricades!

A Cuban In London said...

Your poem was so eloquent that it should be used in this coming Thursday teachers' strike here in GB.

Greetings from London.